It has been called "the new Space Race." This time it is China taking on the United States, and the race is to seize control of a technology with the potential to change everything: the way we work; how we play; how our democracy functions; how the world could be realigned. Frontline explores some of the ways in which our world is being re-shaped and reimagined by the technology of artificial intelligence, a sea change that has been compared to the Industrial Revolution and the discovery of electricity. The film explores both the peril and the promise of this ascendant technology: tracing the battle between the U.S. and China to harness its power; examining fears about what AI advances mean for the future of work; and revealing how AI algorithms are ushering in an age of both great problem-solving potential and of new and troubling threats to privacy and democracy.

Originally released by PBS, 2019. Streaming video file encoded with permission for digital streaming by Infobase on December 16, 2019.

Introduction: In the Age of AI (6:10); --China Has a Plan: Tech Entrepreneurship (6:56); -- China Has a Plan: Authoritarian Capitalism (7:56); -- Promise: Autonomous Vehicles (5:31); -- Promise: Medical Application (5:14); -- Promise: New Era (3:38); -- Promise: Displaced by AI (5:55); -- Future of Work: Eliminating Jobs (8:31); -- Future of Work: Left Behind (8:50); -- Future of Work: Disruptive Technologies (7:05); -- Surveillance Capitalists: Data Mining (11:01); -- Surveillance Capitalists: Customer Surveillance (5:03); -- Surveillance Capitalists: Upending Democracy (3:20); -- Surveillance Capitalists: Need for Regulation (6:38); -- Surveillance State: Bamboo Curtain (14:38); -- Surveillance State: High Stakes (5:27); -- Credits: In the Age of AI (1:03); .